All DeKalb County voters should be allowed to vote in next month’s elections in the new city of Brookhaven, according to a lawsuit filed this week in federal court.
Attorney Jerome Lee filed the case against the state of Georgia on Wednesday, asking for an emergency hearing on the issue. The suit claims Brookhaven’s inaugural election will dilute the African-American vote in DeKalb, which is 54 percent black. The new city is about 11 percent African-American.
Plaintiffs include the Georgia Black Legislative Caucus and civil rights leader Joseph Lowery.
Lauren Kane, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office, said Thursday that the same claims were made previously against new cities in north Fulton County and Dunwoody, the other new city in DeKalb. A district court rejected that lawsuit.
“We are optimistic that the court will take the same view on this lawsuit,” Kane said.
The lawsuit is a formal request to earlier complaints about the vote for cityhood this summer. Several county leaders and residents complained that the entire county did not have a say in whether the north-central DeKalb area should incorporate.
That referendum passed with 55 percent of the vote. Next month, voters in the new city will pick from four candidates for mayor and 20 candidates for a four-member city council. A run-off election, a likelihood given the volume of candidates, would be held Dec. 4.
Brookhaven is slated to begin operations on Dec. 17.
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